Posted on 08/03/2004 8:57:16 PM PDT by tpaine
What all does it mean?
The right-wing website Free Republic is infamous for galvanizing harassment campaigns against ideological enemies, but it also has a lighter side: a robust culture of George W. kitsch.
"Freepers" display and study the famous photograph of Bush embracing Ashley Faulkner, whose mother perished on 9-11, a woeful, iconic look on his face ("The protective encirclement of her head by President Bush's arm and hand is the essence of fatherly compassion," Freeper luvbach1 writes);
the ladies exchange snaps of the president in resolute pose, rendering up racy comments about his sexiness; they reference an image of Bush jogging alongside a soldier wounded in Iraq like it's a Xerox of his very soul. "He's the kind of guy who's going to remember to call a soldier who's lost a leg," one citizen of the Free Republic reflects, "and go jogging with him when he gets a replacement prosthetic." Revering Bush has become, for people like this, a defining component of conservative ideology.
Once I interviewed a Freeper who told me he first became a committed conservative after discovering the Federalist Papers. "I absolutely devoured them, recognizing, my God, these things were written hundreds of years ago and they still stand up as some of the most intense political philosophy ever written."
I happen to agree, so I asked him—after he insisted Bush couldn't have been lying when he claimed to have witnessed the first plane hit the World Trade Center live on TV, after he said the orders to torture in Iraq couldn't have possibly come from the top, all because George Bush is too fundamentally decent to lie—what he thinks of the Federalists' most famous message: that the genius of the Constitution they were defending was that you needn't base your faith in the country on the fundamental decency of an individual, because no one can be trusted to be fundamentally decent, which was why the Constitution established a government of laws, not personalities.
"If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary . . . "
Conservatives see something angelic in George Bush. That's why they excuse, repress, and rationalize away so much.
And that is why conservatism is verging on becoming an un-American creed
"Conservatives see something angelic in George Bush."
Angelic? No. But Bush is plain-spoken - none of the French "nuance" that Kerry displays. Thats why we take him at his word..
That's why they excuse, repress, and rationalize away so much
...until proven otherwise. Your side still claims that "Bush Lied" even though you've failed to provide any evidence of such lies. Innocent until proven guilty. We aren't excusing or rationalizing away anything - you've simply failed to make your case.
Nice Strawman though...
Here are my votes for Bush's country songs.
1. You're walking on the fighting side of me.
2. Watermelon wine
I think what he mostly lacks is an understanding of God.
Pray for W And Our Troops
//quotes corrected so the weasel won't misrepresent what I said. sigh.
Perlstein: "Conservatives see something angelic in George Bush."
Angelic? No. But Bush is plain-spoken - none of the French "nuance" that Kerry displays. Thats why we take him at his word...
Perlstein: "That's why they excuse, repress, and rationalize away so much"
...until proven otherwise. Your side still claims that "Bush Lied" even though you've failed to provide any evidence of such lies. Innocent until proven guilty. We aren't excusing or rationalizing away anything - you've simply failed to make your case.
Nice Strawman though...
Welcome!
Someone should tell that clymer to go cheney himself. Hey, I just did!
He spends so much time trying to "understand" conservatives, but in the end, he simply concludes that he can't relate to or understand conservatives....therefore, he's *justified* in heaping his scorn on us, like the arrogant, elitist he is.
Story I heard about Bush.
He is not really all THAT gregarious. When he was thinking about running for governor, he went out by himself in a lake in a fishing boat. When he had made up his mind, however, he felt compelled to go over to strangers in another boat and share the news with them.
What's-his-name qwho started up Air America gave an interview to a Dallas News reporters and kept dissing people who shopped in J.C.Penney's. I don't shop there often but I was offended, so I e-mailed the reporter and complained. He said, you know, I got more complaints about what Franken said about J.C. Penney's than I did about his comments about Bush. He explained that there are no J.C. Penney's stores in Manhatten, so Franken dismisses it as a rubesville thing. The idiots like this guy are just plain snobs, and annoying snobs, because they live in their own world. The only snob more than a NY liberal is a Parisian.
--- "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or anyone else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
Theodore Roosevelt
"after he insisted Bush couldn't have been lying when he claimed to have witnessed the first plane hit the World Trade Center live on TV"
I heard some tinfoil hat guy say that on Art Bell's show. Where did they get that? Are these people idiots, nuts or both?
You need to e-mail this suggestion to the BC'04 Campaign. I think it's a GREAT campaign ad idea.
He thinks we're un-American. He's giving Mrs. Heinz Kerry a definition of un-American in her rant the other day.
Of course, we believe THEY are un-American because they can't grasp the concept of killing people who want to do us harm.
Thanks... I'll do that! :)
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